Cobotics
Source: Google Images Public Domain
Cobotics
Source: Google Images Public Domain
Cobotics
Source: Google Images Public Domain
There is general agreement among educators at all levels that AI in education and learning is still in its early stages. Post Covid-19, AI has been rapidly expanding. AI is powered by computer capability.
The 1957 launch of Sputnik into space, and the firing of nuclear missiles into space from the deck of the USS Norton Sound AVM-1 (Aviation Missile Ship #1) helped validate the creative use of integral circuits. These events enabled the computer explosion of the 1960s.
During the 1960s, the forerunner of the internet, theDARPA NET (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), applied the results, igniting the exponential growth of computer power. Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors providing computer power doubles every two years, helps to explain the growth of computers, including the increasing uses of computers in learning.
Cobotics
Source: Google Images Public Domain
In 1957, circumstances placed me right in the middle of the digital explosion as a sailor serving aboard the USS Norton. I went on to Orange Coast College as faculty on the team that installed the first computer into a community college for instruction; and then to UCLA and a dissertation on computer-assisted instruction. The series of events launched me on a lifelong study of computer-assisted and personalized learning. Artificial Intelligence and its increasing importance in education and learning has become an important 21st-century phenomenon.
Now, big data, deep learning, machine learning, and personalized human-centered research on the learning brain are fueling the increasing study of the brain’s neural networks and AI. Each person learns as an individual. Therefore, there is great benefit in studying the brain and learning on a very personalized basis and a need for expanded study of the effect of individualized AI on teaching and individualized learning at all levels. Almost every person has a phone, watch or other type of personal wearable with which to interact. Each relationship between a person, screen or voice is intimate and personal.
AI is increasingly human-centered, screen-deep, and sensory-driven. Cobotics, the human-robotic relationship, provides for a very personal human and machine response.
Post-pandemic, humans are more widely accepting of computer applications in schools and for learning. “Likes, links, follow buttons” and advances in voice recognition makes it easier to use, fostering intimate communication.
Applications such as Zoom, Microsoft Team, Facetime make face-to-face communication commonplace, and some argue that the screens into which we habitually gaze may supplant our otherwise natural drive to socialize. Research on brain plasticity supports the idea that our minds are capable of learning and being molded, especially because of the intimate relationship with the various technologies. Continual touchscreen use reshapes the brain. (Cytowic 2024). AI can stimulate sensory pathways that augment understanding and learning. Research is needed to discover the degree to which smart screen or voice interaction positively or negatively affects the brain, notably affecting memory and habits as they enhance teaching and learning.
The most complete learning experiences engage combinations of the five senses. We are at the relatively early stages of multisensory understanding.
The personal digital devices of today are magically fantastic and challenging and provide large opportunities to influence and improve teaching and learning in the years ahead. Among the priority areas that need study:
- Addictions of all types
- Isolation and socialization at all levels
- Sense of identity
- Validating and leveraging AI applications
- Synesthesia, cobotics, machine and human learning
- Language AI in education
- AI-generated e-learning.
- AI ethics and bias
- Learner, teacher, technology interaction
- AI and teaching
- AI and human potential.
AI possibilities in teaching and learning are dazzling. The AI of today can be like having a sorcerer at your fingertips. Studying personal media is a 21st-century essential. The need is now!
